BURTON, MI — While you were sleeping Sunday night, the Burton Bendle football team was busy blocking, running routes and playing dodgeball.

The Tigers took the field at 12:01 a.m. Monday, the first official day high school football teams in Michigan can practice, for an abbreviated, stripped down introduction to the 2014 season. The 75-minute, offense-heavy session was the idea of second-year coach Brandon Chapman, one he borrowed from 2005 when he was an assistant coach at Bendle.

“We wanted to do something different,” Champan said. “Last year we talked about it but never got it organized. This year we said the kids deserved it; they’ve worked hard and it’s something fun for them.”

Bendle finished 6-4 last season and middle of the pack in a top-heavy Genesee Area Conference Blue, but Chapman said his team was pushed around physically and mentally and he wanted to change it in Year 2.

The Tigers played in 7-on-7 scrimmages all summer, against Carman-Ainsworth and Holly, at Wayne State University and Ford Field in Detroit, and participation in the weight room far exceeded last year, Chapman said.

On Sunday, players and coaches camped outside Bendle Middle School, the team had a barbecue and players conditioned for practice with a dodgeball tournament in the gym.

“Last year we had new coaches and nobody knew where we were going,” said senior Darian Weatherford. “We weren’t close. This year we’re a lot closer.”

Comradery will be key in 2014 for Bendle, a program with a winning history (six consecutive winning seasons; playoff berths the last three) but lacking in experience on the offensive side of the ball.

Weatherford and junior Logan Lawrence, both backups last year, are competing at quarterback to replace Tevin Pulley; also gone are former all-league running back Dion Reed and an offensive line that was considered one of the best in the GAC Blue.

“Coming off last year, we were a big, physical team,” Chapman said. “This year I think we’re a quicker, smaller team. But I think the mental preparation going into this year is better and we’re ready to go."

Bendle opens the season at Byron on Aug. 29, a team the Tigers lost to last year, 27-25, in the final minute at home. The loss left junior receiver and cornerback Frederick Bell in tears.

“I don’t want to have that feeling again this year,” Bell said. “We’ve been working hard in the offseason; we can pull out the win if we play as a team."

Aaron McMann covers sports at The Flint Journal. Contact him at amcmann@mlive.com; follow him on Twitter @AaronMcMann.